An 11-year-old boy was seriously injured yesterday in a freak lift accident in Fanling.

Lui Kam-ho had to be rescued by firemen and was admitted to Northern Hospital in a critical condition.

The accident occurred shortly after 5pm when Kam-ho, accompanied by his mother and a younger sister, was waiting for the lift in the 17th-floor lobby of a block in Belair Monte, Ma Sik Road, while his father went to collect the car to take his family out for a New Year's Day dinner.

Kam-ho darted into the lift when it arrived but found it was still going up. He lent out, stopping the doors closing, but was too scared to jump down. His mother tried in vain to take his hands to pull him from the lift. Kam-ho then became trapped between the front edge of the lift floor and the top of the lobby door frame as the lift rose.

The boy's mother screamed for help and neighbours called police and firefighters, who lowered the lift's cables to free Kam-ho to allow ambulancemen to take him to hospital.

Police said last night that officers of the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department were examining the lift and would later submit a report to the police to determine the cause of the incident.